Engine will only run for a little while before stalling

DAVID2

MEMBER
1997 GEO METRO
210,000 MILES

I have codes P0141 O2 Sensor heater circuit malfunction bank 1-Sensor 2 and P0400 exhaust gas recirculation flow malfunction.

PROBLEM 1 PRIMARY PROBLEM

The engine shuts down after about 10-15 minutes of operation. Then you will not be able to restart the vehicle unless you let the vehicle sit for an hour or so. After an hour, it will restart like as if nothing happened.

Why is it shutting down? What primary fix is needed so that the vehicle will not shut down? The EGR problem?

The vehicle also has exhaust leaks before and after the catalytic converter. After taking the air filter off, I noticed that the vehicle is also spitting some oil down the throttle body.

I was thinking the O2 sensor (because it was cracked by a wreckless mechanic about 3 years ago-- But it still got great mileage so I did not bother replacing it but just rapped it with fiberglass muffler tape) and possibly the Catalytic converter was the problem. After reading an article about the EGR to see if the thing or its channels is crusty to see if that is the problem.

but don't want to bother with much more seeing the vehicle has seen a lot of salt and has additional needs on the horizon.

PROBLEM 2

6 months prior to this problem, It had a problem where it would not charge the battery enough. I noticed that when you put a charger on while it was running, it would be drawing 2 amps from the battery charger.

In the past if I needed to put a charge to get it going on a -20 below day, The charger would go to 0 amps as soon as the car was running.

The alternator seems like it can crank out power if the battery is really down, but it wont fill the battery up. I put a good battery in the vehicle and after about a week it was weak. However you can put a weak battery in the vehicle and it won't go dead. I have had a weak battery in the vehicle for years because it barely needed any power to start in the summer.

But I will miss the 55mpg if I can't fix it!

The Geo metro Manual is a 3 cylinder (1 liter)5 speed Transmission has 210k miles.

1 Reply

HMAC300

MECHANIC
48,601 POSTS

The rear O2 sensor won't effect gas mileage. But the exhaust leak can give you problems causing the O2 to give you that code. The EGR valve shouldn't effect running but will make the car kinda run rough if it is hanging open. Check for other codes and fuel pressure. It may be the cause of not running. Also don't screw around with weak batteries, the make your computer screw up due to low voltage.